Iban

Iban is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about 700,000 people
in Sarawak in Malayasia, Kalimantan Barat in Indonesia, and in Brunei.
Iban speakers belong to the Dayak ethnic group and used to be known
as "Sea Dayak". Iban is closely related to Malay, particularly the
Malay of Sarawak.

Iban pronunciation

Iban alphabet

Iban is usually written with the Latin alphabet, however there
is an alternative script, which was invented in 1947 Dunging Anak
Gunggu (1904-1985). It is a syllabic script consisting of 77
symbols which Dunging taught to a number of his nephews. There
was little interest from other members of his community, few
of whom were literate.

Dunging continued working on his script and by 1962 he had
refined it down to 59 symbols. He was invited to teach the
script at a school in Betong, but with little success. There
have been a number of unsuccessful atempts to revive this
script, since then. In 1990 Bagat Nunui, Dunging's adopted son,
gathered together information about the script into a manuscipt,
which wasn't published. Then in 2011 Dr Bromeley Philip, an
associate professor at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
in Sarawak, started teaching a course in the script.

Translation

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come,
on earth as in heaven. Gives us our daily bread. Forgive us of
our sin, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not
into temtation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours. Now and forever. Amen.